AROUND TOWN: Successful Arts Hootenanny at The Mansion

Owners Sam and Kathy Guadagnoli turned their nightclub The Mansion over to local arts groups and on a busy Friday night —  Jan. 25 — Tejon Street looked a bit like an old-time Hollywood red carpet opening.

Wear “Rat Pack” outfits, the invitations said, and out came fishnet stockings and fedoras.

As searchlights flashed across the downtown sky, it was an opportunity to support and catch a glimpse of “CREEP!” filmmakers Pete Schuermann and Nancy Theken’s big-screen docudrama, filmed in Colorado Springs,  about what’s often called the best-worst movie/scam of all time, “The Creeping Terror.”
 
There were dancers, Taiko Society Drummers, performing artists, costumed characters, burlesque dancers and visual artists.

But perhaps the most haunting moment of the evening, in a building that was once the city’s gilded Opera House, came from opera star Judeth Shay Burns. From an elevated stage high above the crowd floated her ethereal sounds, stopping conversations in mid-sentence.
Groups presenting the first raucous Hootenanny for the Arts included the Colorado Springs Conservatory, Peak Arts Fund, Peak Radar and COPPeR, but partygoers were from all portions of the area’s arts community.

Among the greeters were COPPeR’s Christina McGrath and the Conservatory’s Linda Weise.